WHO WE ARE: Bond reBourne terminates the Age of Irony

THE MAN who could be elected this week as President of the United States was described recently as “a socially stiff relic of a pre-ironic America”.

Mike Allen, an analyst with politico.com, apparently believes Mitt Romney is a man out of his time (the uptight 1950s), while Barack Obama is a hip, cool product of the Noughties. We will know on Wednesday which model of masculinity Americans want, but in the meantime we need to explore the implications of the label “pre-ironic”.

Allen seems to be saying that America (and thus the whole of the western world) is now living through the Age of Irony. But I’m not sure that’s true. I think it would be more accurate to say we have moved into a post-ironic era (PIE) of history.

From this (Bond Lite) ...

I think this PIE started when screen spies started taking themselves seriously. The character we can blame or praise for the transformation would be Jason Bourne.

Advertisement

Consider these two symptoms of the post-ironic approach to screen spying: the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, was launched in London at a charity fundraiser for dead, injured and impoverished agents of the British secret services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ; and the film Argo, which opened here last weekend, ends with a voiceover by former president Jimmy Carter praising the real-life work of the spy played by Ben Affleck.

That’s quite a change from Austin Powers, Maxwell Smart, The Man from UNCLE and earlier incarnations of James Bond.

... and this (Austin Powers) ...

The irony fad reached its peak in the 1980s. As the Cold War was winding down and we were wondering what all the anti-Communist fuss had been about, spies were a joke. At the time, James Bond was played by smug, supercilious Roger Moore.

That was when people used to twitch two fingers on each hand to make “air quotes”, indicating the twitcher didn’t really mean what he or she was saying. Roger Moore’s acting was permanently surrounded by air quotes.

The fading of The Age of Irony was signalled in 1991 by a documentary called In Bed With Madonna. We see the sex goddess in her dressing room, receiving a visit from Kevin Costner. She asks what he thought of her performance, and he says it was “neat”. As he’s leaving, Madonna pretends to vomit, hissing “Anybody who says my show is ‘neat’ has got to go.”

... To this (Bourne) ...

After the documentary came out, Costner was asked how he felt about being mocked in that way. He said he didn’t mind, and actually he’d thought Madonna’s show was “kind of disgusting”, but had been too polite to say so. Costner didn’t get the irony in Madonna’s work, and didn’t care that he didn’t get it. He was the Mitt Romney of the 1990s.

Then in 1993 Hollywood producers, under the delusion that audiences still wanted irony, spent $70 million on a film called The Last Action Hero, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger satirised the genre. It was a massive flop. Arnie retired hurt and went into politics. As it turned out, his character was not the last action hero, just the last ironic hero.

Bruce Willis gave us a fighter we could take seriously with the Die Hard series, but he was a cop. Spies only became credible in 2002 when the Jason Bourne series began. As portrayed by Matt Damon, Bourne’s Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum suggested the CIA was sending agents around the world to assassinate politicians and journalists deemed to be enemies of America. The spies were not likeable, but at least they were Irony-free.

... and this (Bond Heavy).

The owners of the rights to James Bond noted Bourne’s success and transformed the hero of Casino Royale into a grim killer who could be endorsed by MI6.

For television, the Bourne legacy was Homeland, portraying spies as ruthless, relentless, and occasionally neurotic, but above all Serious People.

Check out the trailer for A Good Day to Die Hard (number five in the franchise) and you’ll see Bruce Willis describing himself as “the double oh seven of Plainfield, New Jersey”. Check out the trailer for The Last Stand, and you’ll see Arnold Schwarzenegger (yes, he’s back) as the arthritic sheriff of a small town invaded by criminals. Arnie has one expression – grim.

A Mitt Romney victory this week will suggest America is in a mood to enjoy The Last Stand. Arnie’s sheriff won’t be the first action hero of the Post-Ironic Era -- that was Bourne. Or the second – that was Bond. But he could be the third. When you get to Arnie’s age, bronze ain’t bad.

To discuss whether irony is dead, go to Comments.

You have just read the Who We Are column, by David Dale. It appears in printed form every Sunday in The Sun-Herald, and also as a blog on this website, where it welcomes your comments. David Dale teaches communications at UTS, Sydney. He is the author of The Little Book of Australia -- A snapshot of who we are (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark The Tribal Mind.

4 comments so far

It goes beyond superspies, but also into superheroes - Batman reinvented minus the goofs, Superman and Spiderman in the process of being reinvented (again) as we speak, as more serious characters. I think the current wave of seriousness is simply the pendulum swinging against the extreme goofy slapstick of the 80s. Personally I enjoy it.

Commenter

Nobhead

Date and time

November 04, 2012, 2:55AM

When Bond was beginning, there was also John Le Carré. The latter was serious espionage but then, the Bond books were not the farce the movies made them. However, I watched the movie "Spy Who Came in from the Cold" again last night. It is the quintessential spy story; no violence, no car chases. Simply a battle of minds between the West and Communism. But the movie with Richard Burton is such a marvellous piece of acting made possible by a great story. When I first read the book, probably shortly before the movie was released, George Smiley played only a minor part. Only in later books would it be about George Smiley. But the two genres are different. There are no heroes in Le Carré and society needs heroes, if not real then invented.

Subscribe to IT Pro

Editor's Choice

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has bolstered Malcolm Turnbull's ministerial duties, handing him greater responsibility for e-government in a push to expand the use of a single digital identity for Australians.

Data

The new roof that spans Margaret Court arena does more than keep out the weather. Built into the gantries that surround the sliding ceiling are Wi-Fi antennas that beam web access to every ticket holder.